Call Number:

DG.015

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

8.5 linear ft. (8.5 linear ft.)

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Identification of item], in the Anna Melissa Graves Papers (DG 015), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Date:

1919-1953 (inclusive)

Creator:

Albizu Campos, Pedro, 1891-1965, Angell, Norman, 1874-1967, Balabanoff, Angelica, 1878-1965, Balch, Emily Greene, 1867-1961, Brockway, Fenner, 1888-1988, Brown, A. Barratt, Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstricker), 1892-1973, Catt, Carrie Chapman, 1859-1947, Clark, Roderic Kendall, Cunard, Nancy, 1896-1965, Drevet, Camille, Goicochea, E. J., Grimes, Louis Arthur, 1883-, Hartmann, George W. (George Wilfried), 1904-1955, Holmes, John Haynes, 1879-1964, Kaufman, Abraham, Kohn, Hans, 1891-1971, Lévy, Blancy, Ligt, Bart de, 1883-1938, Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956, Morgan, Angela, Nearing, Scott, 1883-1983, Reynolds, Reginald, 1905-1958, Romero James, Concha, Royden, A. Maude (Agnes Maude), 1876-1956, Russell, Bertrand, 1872-1970, Sánchez, Luis Alberto, 1900-1994, Sidgwick, Ethel, 1877-1970, Thomas, Evan W. (Evan Welling), 1890-1974, Thomas, Norman, 1884-1968, Vasconcellos, J. Leite de (José Leite), 1858-1941, Wolfe, Bertram David, 1896-1977, and Woods, Amy

Abstract:

Anna Melissa Graves was a writer, teacher, world traveler, and internationalist. From the 1920s to the 1940s Graves traveled through Africa, Central and South America, China, Europe, and the Middle East. She taught school in many of these places and maintained a voluminous correspondence with the teachers, acquaintances, and former students she met on her travels.

Anna Melissa Graves (1875-1964), was a writer, teacher, world traveler, and internationalist. From the 1920s to the 1940s Graves traveled through Africa, Central and South America, China, Europe, and the Middle East. She taught school in many of these places and maintained a voluminous correspondence with the teachers, acquaintances, and former students she met on her travels. Graves was an active member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. While living in Geneva she acted as a consultative member for the WILPF on the League of Nations Liberia Commission. This Commission attempted to settle the dispute between the Liberian government and the Firestone Rubber Company. Interested in promoting understanding between peoples of different countries, Graves published four collections of the correspondence she received from all over the world. The issue of racial and ethnic prejudice was an important one for Graves and her books reflect this concern.

The papers of Graves consist mostly of correspondence from friends around the world. The letters, approximately half of which are from women, touch on family life in Syria, work and family conditions in China from the 1920s through the 1950s, and educational life in South America. Many of the letters describe war time and post war conditions in France and Germany. The issues of race and educational aspirations also are topics of many letters. Some of the better known correspondents include Henri Barbusse, Camille Drevet, Barthelemy (Bart) de Ligt, Carlo Sforza, Gertrude Baer, Angelica Balabanoff, Victor Gollancz, B.W. Huebsch, Hans Kohn, Rosika Schwimmer, Henrietta Szold, Frank Tannenbaum, Bertram Wolfe, Gabriela Mistral, Marie Rolland, and Bertrand Russell. Part of this correspondence has been published in four volumes: Benvenuto Cellini had no Prejudice Against Bronze; Both Deeper Than and Above the Melee; But the Twain Do Meet; and The Far East is Not Very Far. A box of correspondence was received in 2013 and added to the end of the collection.